


walking past the reeds and river

by Lilitu



Category: Over the Moon (2020)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Nostalgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28649406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilitu/pseuds/Lilitu
Summary: but there are memories here, and she can still find the lion statues she wore the noses away of with her good luck taps.
Kudos: 11





	walking past the reeds and river

**Author's Note:**

> 爸爸 is chinese for father~

_Walking past the reeds and river, have you ever heard of a girl who left behind a song?_

_For what the clouds shed tears in silence._

_For what the wind keeps whispering._

_A line of red-crowned cranes fly by ever so gently._

* * *

“your father passed away peacefully this morning.” 

what is there to say? fei fei hasn’t visited her hometown in years, although she knows that 爸爸 was well taken care of in his final years at the assisted living home. she managed to find an excuse every time he asked her to visit -- work, a meeting, getting her car repaired. he accepted every explanation without argument. 

and now she’s run out of time. 

“the service will be in three days, at 5 pm. please come to collect his belongings at your earliest convenience.” doubtless mistaking her silence for shock, the woman continues, stiff and halting.

“i’m sorry for your loss.”

* * *

after the funeral, she walks through the streets of her hometown — oh, how much it’s changed in a decade.

the family owned shops are gone, replaced by franchises staffed by people who gaze at every customer with the same glassy stare.

she can still find the shop front of the old store. it hemorrhaged money towards the end, but her father clung to the business until he was decisively forced out by competitors who could produce thousands of mooncakes a day with their machines. 

she doesn’t suppose they remember people’s orders by heart, or how many melon seeds to put in every mooncake, or what proportion of filling to put in each one. how to seal it up tight with careful, steady hands lest it explode in the oven, or how to get a stuck one out of the mold. 

_(but there are memories here, and she can still find the lion statues she wore the noses away of with her good luck taps.)_

she can still find the bridge beneath the willows and the place where the waxing moon shone through a painted silk scarf, where her hair was brushed as she listened to thousand-year old stories. a mother's touch, and a father's laughter. they felt like the most magical things in the world to her.

( _her hair is cut short now.)_

the closer she gets to the riverbank, the stronger the smell of rotting water lilies gets, and she can see they’re piled high in brown drifts like decaying skyscrapers. 

she kneels on the old, unkept pier, mindful of which planks she puts her weight on.

_(like all things in time, wood is unreliable.)_

a pale white lily floats up to her, turning lazy circles in the water. she reaches out and gives it a little push. while she can't save all of them, this one will not get stuck here — not today.

she loses sight of it as it floats away, down the river, below the bridge, set adrift again in the eddies of the current. 

**Author's Note:**

> i watched approximately half of over the moon before getting brain worms
> 
> the quote at the beginning is not mine! it's an english translation of a song about a girl named xu xiujuan (article here, if you're curious: https://news.cgtn.com/news/7859444d34637a6333566d54/share.html). unfortunately, i haven't been able to find the original chinese version, but i've always wanted to use the song in my writing.


End file.
